A/N: haha guys imagine publishing chapters 6 and 7 over a half year apart because you forget about this account and are two focused on your man to write, I don't have to imagine

Two weeks later

Nya's POV

"Why was the thermometer smarter than the graduated cylinder?" Jay asks, tightening a screw to the machine we've been working on for the past couple of days. Neither of us know the purpose of it. We're improving as we go.

"I don't know, why?" I respond. Jay's been telling corny jokes all day, and they're amazing.

"Because he had more degrees," he starts hysterically laughing at his own joke. I try not to laugh, but his laughter is contagious.

"That...was so bad," I tell him mid laughter. Over the past two weeks I've been here, Jay has been one of the two people I've talked to, the other being Skylor. It's not that I'm avoiding people, but I'm just usually with one of them. Looking at how I'm supposed to be getting the elemental masters to escape, it would be smart to talk to more people, but this routine I've gotten into is nice. I wake up at 8, get dressed, and head down for breakfast with Skylor. After breakfast, we walk around the "town", talk, and do various tasks to keep us occupied. Then, at two, I come here with Jay. We stay until the little alarm goes off. When we get back, we head our separate ways. When I get to the room, I'm typically alone for thirty minutes before Skylor shows up. We watch a movie before I go to bed, and she sits on her phone.

Skylor is like the older sister I've always wanted. She's cool, collected, and seems to be good at everything. She gives great advice (from what I've experienced so far). Skylor is the older sibling I've needed for the past 8 years of my life.

I'd say Jay is like my brother, but I've had a brother before, and this isn't what it feels like. There's something different here. Not a bad different, but a good different.

"Can you tell your roommate to stop calling Skylor in the middle of the night? I've woken up to the two of them talking for the past 5 nights," and I haven't been able to go back to bed until they finish talking, which is usually around 3 in the morning.

"He's going through a rough patch. It happens every year. He claims he made a mistake, and ever since he's gotten here, he's gotten upset this time of year. He only likes to talk about it to her. I don't know why, but he does. He's recovering now though, so it's good, but he's still moody, easily irritable. The other day he...," Jay starts to ramble about something his roommate did last week. Jay has a habit where when he gets really excited about something, he starts talking really fast. I've seen some of his friends tune him out while he does it (I was grabbing some hot cocoa from the lobby while he was down there with two of his friends). He was going about something, and his friend just nodded, looking down at his phone. I actually find it nice that he's so passionate about so much.

"Hey Jay, who's your friend who wears a lot of black?" I've only seen Jay with two of his friends (one in black and one in white), but there's something about the one in black that seems familiar.

"Cole, why?" his attention is pulled fully from this machine at the mention of his friend.

"He seems familiar. There's something about him that I just can't connect," I admit. Jay chews at the corner of his lip.

"Cole's been in here since he was fifteeen, and he's twenty now, so he's been in here for five years, if that helps," hearing that his friend is twenty shocks me. In my mind, all of the teenagers here are my age. Looking at Jay, I wonder how old he is.

"Jay how old are you?" He doesn't look like he could be anything over 20, which is good, but sometimes people just look younger.

"Nineteen. How about you?" he asks. I guess that's not too bad, but it's still older than I thought he was.

"Sixte... wait, seventeen. I completely forgot my birthday was last week," the fact that I forgot my own birthday surprises me. I guess I was so caught up here that I didn't even notice.

"It was your birthday, and you kept it a secret. Shame on you!" he says jokingly. I shrug.

"I forgot my own birthday. It wasn't intentional," my hair falls in front of my face, so I pull it back into a bun. "Were you in here when you were seventeen?"

"Sure was."

"Sixteen?"

"Yeah, I've been in here for a little over 8 years," he says casually. "Better than the people who have been stuck in here for all 18 years." The thought of being in here for 18 years is completely unnerving.

"This place is older than I am?" I ask. He breaks into a smile and nods.

"Yep. Originally, they had everyone together, but then they split it up into past elementals and present just to torture everyone, I believe. Disgusting if they ask me. It's not like we can use our powers," Jay takes a quick glance down at the cuff on his wrist.

"Is one of your parents in there?" I ask him. He tenses up, and I regret asking the question. It could be too personal, or maybe whichever elemental parent he had passed away.

"Yes and no," he answers vaguely. "My birth mother is in there, but in no way is my mom in there. Her and my, pardon my language, asshole superstar father abandoned me so they could have a bit of fun. They gave me to my mom and dad while they went on an 'extended vacation'. When she was caught, my father went back to the film business like nothing ever happened," he starts to tear up around the end, but holds back from crying. 

"I'm so, so sorry. If you don't mind me asking, who's your dad?" I hum as he has a neutral expression on his face.

"Cliff Gordon. I still love his movies, but I can't stand the guy off the screen," Jay looks disgusted even saying his name.

"Well, it seems like your better parents raised you pretty well," I tell him, making a him smile a bit.

"They were amazing. I miss them so much," he sighs.

"We'll both find a way back to our families Jay. I promise."

---

Lloyd's POV

"Lloyd," Harumi hums as the two of us walk through the park. Lately, our whole group has spent the start of the day together before dispersing into smaller groups for the later part of the day. It's been working out nicely for me considering all the time I have with just Harumi.

"Yeah."

"My hand is cold. Can you warm it up for me?" she smiles while also shivering. It has been rather cold in here lately. I bet the heater broke.

"Of course," I take her hand in mine. She glances down, smiles, and keeps walking.

"It's so beautiful out today," Rumi takes in our surroundings, looking around at the park. For an artificially made place, it's not too bad.

"It really is," I agree, looking at the flowers scattered across the grass.

"Have you started noticing that Jay's been acting weird recently? Like he's totally normal until it gets around 1:30, and then he starts rambling and needs to leave."

"It's Jay. I've stopped questioning things," I admit, adjusting the sunglasses that sit on the bridge of my nose.

"What is Kai doing?" I go to question her, but then I realize she's looking straight at Kai. He's sitting on a bench, laughing, right next to Skylor. Quickly, Harumi drags me over to the two of them, dropping my hand in the process. "Kai, what do you think you're doing?"

"He's hanging out with a friend," Skylor answers for him, already fed up with her. Skylor and Harumi have a horrible relationship, a hatred for each other. Harumi doesn't like that Skylor gets attention from Kai and that the two of them ever dated. Skylor doesn't like that Harumi doesn't let Kai talk to her and how Harumi treats all of us. I think she treats us all fine, but that could just be me.

"Kai, we don't talk to people outside our group," Harumi hisses at him. Kai, if we're being honest, looks like he couldn't care less about what Harumi is saying.

"Oh no, I'm talking to Skylor. What a crime," he smirks sarcastically, which just aggravates her more.

"Kai, you're coming with Lloyd and I. We shouldn't worry ourselves with lower class citizens like her," Harumi holds her head up high.

"Oh yes, I'm so sorry princess. I know how you want to control all of your friends like they're pawns in your weird little game. I greatly apologize for getting in the way," Skylor sands up, fake curtsies, and brushes off her jeans. "See you later Kai," she waves, starting to walk away.

"Skylor!" Kai calls, but she already walked away. He sighs before standing up.

"I'm going to find Jay," he announces, "coincidentally" going in the same direction as Skylor.

"Lloyd," someone says behind me. Quickly, I spin around. My uncle stands, holding his bamboo staff as always.

"Yes, Uncle?" I have to refrain from groaning. He's gone most of the time, and when he is here, all he does is lecture me. It's tiring.

"Can I have a word with you?" he glances uneasily between Harumi and me. Harumi fiercely glares at him.

"With us," Harumi corrects him.

"No, just my nephew."

"I'll be back in a minute Rumi," I tell her, much to her dismay. Wu leads me far enough that Harumi can't hear us, but we can still see her.

"Lloyd, I don't think you should hang out with her anymore," he tells me seriously. My eyes widen.

"Harumi?" I ask for clarification. He nods.

"She's not good, Lloyd. Trust me. She's manipulative," he advises me, but he doesn't even know her.

"You don't know a thing about her. You only just saw that interaction," I gesture to where Kai is still walking away.

"I know more than you would like to believe," he sips the tea I just noticed he has in his hand.

"Just leave me alone. You're not my real uncle anyways," I shove my hands deep into the pocket of my green sweatshirt..

"What do you mean?" his voice is soft, warm, inviting, but I need to keep my composure.

"Both you and my mom always told me to call you uncle because you were one of my mom's close friends. You aren't related to me by blood," I huff. My uncle's gaze is on me, but I can only look at the ground.

"Oh, there's so much you still need to learn," Wu smiles, aggravating me.

"What do I need to learn? I'm 17, you can tell me," I start to loose my patience. "Do you know who my dad is? Is that what you're keeping from me?" My mother (and Wu) always claimed to not know who my father is. It never occurred to me that they could be lying.

"Lloyd, you're changing the subject. The point is, Harumi is..."

"One of my best friends, and I don't need you talking bad about her," I huff, giving up. I turn my back to him and start walking back to her. She's looking over, skeptical.

"Just be careful."

"When am I not?"

---

Nya's POV

"Nya," Skylor calls me from her bed. She's lying face up and is on her phone. She's suited up in her pajamas, and her hair is put up in a messy bun. "Can you go downstairs and grab some noodles? I did it yesterday."

"But it's against the rules to go out of our rooms at night," I look out the window. It's pitch black outside with no streetlights or lights in general out there.

"They don't care if you go to the lobby if it's before 9," she tells me. I look over at the clock. It reads 7:21 PM.

"What do you want?" I pull my black jacket over my shoulders. They have a clothing "store" here where you can get clothes. Skylor and I went the other day and picked out a lot of stuff.

"Get the regular ones. I'm not in the mood for spicy tonight," as I go to leave, Skylor calls out a thank you. I respond before closing the door. With a couple steps, I'm already at the elevator. I click the lobby button and descend to the lowest floor. It gets there in a couple of seconds. Walking through the spacious lobby, I'm surprised when I hear a roar of laughter.

"You would not!"

"But I would," when I turn the corner, from far enough away, I see who it is. There are four boys, two blondes, one with black hair, and one with auburn hair. The blondes are facing me while I can barely see the other two. Both of the blondes look familiar, but I can't put it together mentally. Dismissing it, I head to the front counter.

"Hello master of water, what can I get you today?" the woman behind the counter asks kindly.

"Two regular bowls of noodles please," I smile back at her.

"We just gave our last bowl to the master of poison. We're making a new batch though. It'll be a ten minute wait," she informs me as if ten minutes is long.

"That's fine," once I say that, she instantly rushes into the back room to cook the noodles.

"Look Cole, your girlfriend is here!" I look in a mirror to see one of the blonde boys yell. From this angle, I can actually see the other two boys. It's Jay and his friend Cole.

"I've never talked to her before, chill. All I said is that I wanted to say hi to her," Cole shrugs, taking a sip out of the cup he's holding.

"Well then go talk to her," the same blonde one who said the first comment, Lloyd I think, urges him.

"You don't need to if you don't want to," Jay tells Cole, making a small smile appear on my face.

"I'm gonna do it," Cole stands up, Lloyd cheering in response. I know they're talking about me, seeing that I'm the only person in the room besides them, but it doesn't hit me that he's coming over to talk to me until he's right next to me.

"Do you know where the lady who usually works here is?" he asks casually, resting his arm (that's impressively muscular, may I add) on the counter.

"She's in the back making noodles," I answer in a level tone. He nods.

"I'm Cole, by the way," he sticks his hand out for me to shake it.

"Nya," I shake his hand.

"You're new, right?" he asks like he doesn't already know. If I hadn't heard their conversation, I would've genuinely thought he just came over here.

"Yeah, I've been here for two weeks," I reply.

"Have you made any friends yet?" he asks curiously.

"Just my roommate, Skylor," I lie, seeing Jay's nervous expression from all the way over here. We did agree to keep our friendship a secret, and I'm not going to bail on that.

"Skylor's nice if you're on her good side. Otherwise...it's bad."

"I can picture that," I laugh. I've seen how she talks about Harumi. It wouldn't be nice to be her when Skylor is mad.

"Cole," the woman steps out from the back room. "What do you need?"

"Can I have a blanket? Lloyd got cold sitting next to the human ice pack," he explains, gesturing over to the two blondes.

"Of course," she bends over and grabs something under the counter. "Here you go. Make sure you return it before you guys go up to your rooms. Oh, and Nya, your noddles will be out in like 5 minutes."

"Thank you Natasha," Cole smiles. "Nya, do you want to come sit with us while you're waiting for your noodles to finish?"

"I couldn't intrude on your time with your friends. Plus, I need to be here to pick up the food," I tell him softly.

"Go on! I'll bring you your food over there. Go make some more friends," the woman, Natasha, tries to motivate me to head over there.

"Okay, I'll spend five minutes over there, but then I have to head up to my room," I cave in, making Cole break into a huge smile.

"That's fine with me," the two of us walk over to the group. I try my best to keep a poker face. "Guys, this is Nya. Nya, this is Zane, Lloyd, and Jay," he introduces the other two boys, proving my guess right of Lloyd's name.

"Hi," I politely wave at all three of them. Cole sits down and gestures for the seat in between him and Jay. "Sit down. I promise neither of us bite." I take the seat in between them. "Oh Lloyd, here's a blanket." Cole tosses the blanket he's holding over the table and to Lloyd.

"Thanks?" he drapes the blanket over himself. "So Nya, how have you been liking it here so far?"

"It's fine, limiting, but fine. There's good company here," I answer realistically.

"You'll adapt to the rules. We did, or at least most of us did," Zane says warmly, sending a quick glance in Jay's direction. I pretend like I didn't catch the last part.

"So, how long have you guys been in here?" Casually, I start a new conversation.

"5 years," Cole hums as if it's not a problem.

"4 years," Zane admits.

"7 years," Lloyd says with no sign of wear in his voice.

"8 years," the underlying sadness is evident in Jay's tone. The other three seem beyond joyed to be here. Jay on the other hand, not so much.

"It's passed so quick," Lloyd shakes his head. "Hey Jay, who would win in a fight, me or Cole?"

"Cole, he's like...double your size," Jay says realistically. Looking between Cole and Lloyd, Cole looks like he could crush Lloyd.

"Plus, he goes to the gym every day," Zane adds.

"There's a gym?" I ask. At home, I tried to stay on top of my fitness. I've been slacking lately.

"Yeah, I could show it to you sometime if you'd like," Cole offers, a kind smile on his face.

"Aww, their first date. They grow up so fast Zane," Lloyd wipes fake tears away. At the mention of a date, I go into defense mode. As I go to say something, Zane speaks up.

"Going on a date would be a direct violation of rule 2," Zane states, more to Lloyd than anyone else.

"Plus, just hanging out doesn't mean a date," Jay adds.

"Zane, what's the definition of a date?" Lloyd asks, holding the blanket he got close to his chest.

"A date: a social or romantic appointment or engagement. Some synonyms are appointment, meeting, engagement," Zane says off the top of his head. It's odd, but maybe he got bored here and tried to memorize part of the dictionary.

"So it would be a date!" Lloyd cheers triumphantly.

"But under that definition, if you were to set up a time to hang out with Zane, that'd also be a date," Jay counters Lloyd.

"Most people think dates have to be romantic, but they don't," I chime in what I'm thinking. The conversation goes on, and I don't even notice the noodles get placed on the table.

---

"And then Jay tripped and spilt the coffee he was getting for Harumi all over her favorite dress," Cole laughs at the memory he vividly has.

"You did that?" I ask Jay, stifling a laugh.

"Possibly, and she might've been really mad, so mad that she possibly smashed the ice cream she was eating against my face," once he says that, I can't hold back my laughter.

"He was sneezing chocolate for the rest of the day!" Lloyd starts laughing hysterically.

"I was just thankful it wasn't some disgusting ice cream flavor like grape. Anything grape flavored is disgusting," Jay shakes his head. I can't disagree with that statement. Artificial grape flavors are disgusting.

"If I had this off, I could make you ice cream without the cream," Zane says while looking at the infamous cuff all of us wear.

"You're an ice elemental?" I clarify. Zane nods.

"It was nice, but it's a fair trade for everyone's safety," he says what he feels.

"You seem pretty calm and composed. I doubt you would lash out," my voice comes out reassuringly.

"People thought the same about Garmadon," Cole rebuts.

"Actually, Garmadon was infamous for his temper. People were pushing him past him limits, and he snapped," Jay corrects Cole, who just shrugs.

"Garmawho?" I ask. Jay's eyes widen while Cole looks at me shocked.

"You don't know who Garmadon is?" Cole asks in astonishment.

"I have no idea who that is," I admit seriously.

"Well that's not a problem cause he's literally a psychopath. Correction: literally was a psychopath. He destroyed himself in his search for unnecessary power," Lloyd shakes his head. The name sounds familiar, we probably learnt about it in history somewhere, but I can't recall.

"Oh look who it is," Cole announces. I turn my head in the direction he's looking. Skylor's walking over.

"Hi to you too," Skylor rolls her eyes, getting right behind the couch. "Looks like someone did more than just get noodles," she jokes to me.

"I don't even think the noodles came out yet," I admit. Skylor raises an eyebrow.

"They're right on the table," she gestures towards where two bowls of noodles are sitting on the table.

"Oops," I reach and grab her a bowl. "Here you go."

"When you didn't come back, I got some food, but thank you anyways," she smiles at me while ignoring everyone else.

"Nice pajamas," Lloyd comments. I can't tell if it's sarcastic or not.

"Thank you. I try," Skylor replies, bitterly.

"Are you done being sarcastic? Cause we were kind of in the middle of something," Cole gestures to everyone else, meaning our conversation.

"I came back to retrieve my roommate," she says calmly, her perfectly pedicured nails resting on the back of the couch between Jay and me.

"Bold of you to take your roommate back when you took Jay's roommate from us," Zane crosses his arms. Skylor raises an eyebrow.

"Oh really? Cause it looks like the three of you," Skylor points to all of the boys besides Jay,"seem to be pretty intent on keeping me away from him, the one person in this whole place I would give my life for. And why? All because our precious princess Harumi doesn't like the attention anywhere but herself. And don't say it's cause we're breaking the rules, cause Lloyd and Harumi are doing the exact same thing, but it's totally fine cause she's included," Skylor snaps at all of them. I look at Jay for help, but he looks just as shocked as I do.

"She's the princess. He can't just say no," Cole tries to reason with her, and Skylor rolls her eyes.

"Yes he can. She doesn't own us," she states harshly. "She purposely was holding Lloyd's hand in front of us when we were just talking to taunt us! She just wants to screw with us." She's fuming now. It looks like she could snap a bar of metal with her bare hands. The guards glare over at her, so I decide to cut this off early.

"It was fun hanging out with you guys, but Skylor and I better get going," I stand up, grabbing the bowls of cold noodles as I do so.

"We should converse again soon. This was fun," Zane says, and everyone else agrees.

"Maybe next time Skylor's boy toy can come instead of ogling over her," Lloyd smirks as the fury floods into Skylor's eyes.

"We aren't a thing. We broke up when Harumi showed up, but we're still friends. How hard is that for you guys to understand?" She asks through gritted teeth, about to snap.

"We can go and finish our movie Sky. Bye guys," I wave after I hand Skylor one of the noodle bowls.

"Later Nya," Lloyd waves kindly.

"Goodnight Nya," Zane says.

"Bye Nya. Let's hang out again soon," Cole offers, which I'll gladly take him up on.

"Sleep tight Nya," Jay hums with a sweet little smile on his face that makes me smile. Skylor and I walk off and into the elevator before she cools down and starts laughing.

"What?"

"Cole was so crushing on you! It's hilarious. He couldn't stop looking at you!" her nose scrunched up while she laughs at her untrue observation. Guys don't like me in a way other than a younger sister type way.

"No he wasn't," I brush it off with my face turning red at the thought.

"Yes he was, but what guy wouldn't. You're a catch Nya," she smiles. The two of us walk back to our room, shutting the door behind us. My legs give out and I flop onto my bed. I look over at Skylor and notice the new bracket on her wrist. It's made of amber.

"When did you get that bracelet?" I ask what I'm thinking. She looks down at it and smiles.

"Today. Jay's roommate gave it to me," she smiles looking down at it, as if it's the most valuable thing in the world.

"You really like him, don't you?" I smile over her. She nods.

"I try to put up a hard exterior, to try to be tough around people, especially a couple years back. He didn't get scared away. He stayed with me, got to know the real me. He was the only person in here who I thought actually cared about me. Then, Harumi came and took him away from me, my only ray of sunshine here. She doesn't understand how hard it was to grow up with no friends, a little girl stuck in a place with a ton of grown men. It sucked, so much. Jay came, but for the first two years he wouldn't come out of his room. When his roommate came, he came out. He would talk to me, make me happy. I fell in love with him Nya. Then, Harumi thinks it's okay to take him away and make it so I can't be with him. How cruel is that?" she flops back on her bed. Tears are brimming her eyes.

"And every day he becomes even more handsome, and I have to watch him get preyed on by Harumi. If I could..." she drifts off.

"You'd what?"

"If I could get this stupid bracket off, I could take him and run away. I could get us out. We could be happy together, but nope. This stupid prison is trying to hold us forever," she groans.

"You'll get your happy ending Skylor. I know you will."

A/N: hey I'm back! No one is going to read this still, but oh well. I wanted to write again and I thought this story would be a fun one to go back to causing I already planned the whole plot out chapter by chapter. I hope you guys liked it

Any comments or suggestions?